Day 5: Wednesday, Feb 13, Melbourne

We woke up and got to the airport for a 10am flight to Melbourne. Australia is about the size of the continental U.S. but has only 1/15th the population. That means that cities are spread out, almost all along the coast somewhere. After landing in Melbourne we picked up our rent minivan (Kia Carnival) and were off. That afternoon we drove to Phillip Island SE of Melbourne about 150km, then drove back past Melbourne and ended in Geelong. Melbourne is on the north end of a bay, with Phillip Island jutting out from the SE corner and Geelong located on the west side of the bay.

This was my first time driving on the left side of the road. It was initially much more difficult than I thought. It’s like being in a culture where smiling means you’re angry and frowning means you’re happy – you’re trying to reverse what has become subconscious. Roundabouts were new, and you have to be careful when you make a turn that you don’t instinctively turn into the right lane. This might sound odd, but the hardest part might be using the turn signal. Our car has two stems off the steering column, one of which controls the windshield wipers and one of which is the turn signal. This is common in the U.S., too, but they switched the stems in Australia. You know you have to concentrate on the road, so you apply your conscious thought to that and you end up trying to do the little things – like flicking the turn signal – unconsciously, but in this case it means that every time you try to signal a lane change you turn on your windshield wipers. A couple of times that (dry) day we saw other cars suddenly turn on their windshield wipers and we instantly knew they weren’t from Australia.

Our destination was the “penguin parade.” The smallest species of penguin in the southern hemisphere – aptly named the Blue Penguin – lives on Phillip Island. Every night about sundown the penguins come in from feeding trips into the Pacific and waddle up the hill to their burrows in the hillside. We got their in the afternoon and went to the Nobbies, a set of rocky cliffs home to some penguin burrows and a rocky island that is home to a colony of seals. We then got dinner at a family-run place. They man was of Greek descent and his shop sold a wide variety of things. Some we had to ask about – dim sim, a flake, etc. It got to the point where he started just opening dishes and showing us things – he even showed us peas, fries, and gravy, etc. I’m not sure what he thought we ate normally, but he didn’t trust us to know what anything was. That leads us to our Aussie lingo of the day: Flake=big piece of fish. Grilled, fried, etc. If you think of fish’n’chips but with one big piece of fish, that’s a flake. This is also a good time to say that the Aussies have an odd concept of what makes a hamburger good. Hamburgers over here frequently come with a slice of beet on them. The one John got here came with a slice of pineapple (which was actually a good contribution).

He was as curious about me as I was about him.

The guidebooks said that the penguin parade was spectacular but very commercialized, and they were right on both counts. They have stands built from which you can view the penguins. You can get general admission, a “Penguins Plus” package with better seats, and even a seat in an elevated and enclosed viewing stand. The whole coast gets Antarctic drafts, so it was very windy and cold, hence the enclosed stand. We ended up with cheap but superb seats. We had seen two penguins at the Nobbies, and I’m glad because they didn’t allow cameras out on the coast (because of flashes). A little before sunset we saw our first penguins, and after that it was a steady stream. The penguins are a little less than a foot tall with an almost-iridescent blue back and white chest. Waves would onto the beach and when it receded it would leave behind little white-chested penguins. It started slow, then for a while every third wave would bring a dozen or so penguins, and then it eventually tailed off again. Each group would sprint together across the open beach to some rocks, clamber over the rocks, regroup on the other side and sprint again across more open beach to the bushy dunes. Our viewing place was just behind the beach, so we watched them preen themselves and then waddle past at their own pace. They had carved little footpaths up the cliff, so it looked like they were going into a neighborhood – wide paths with many penguins, then they would break off to go to their burrow. Most of them didn’t immediately go into their burrow but would stand outside with their mate and occasionally call. It looked like a big block party. As we were watching a wallaby and its joey could be seen silhouetted against the dying sun on the top of the hill.